Linguaphone (company)
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Linguaphone is a global language training provider based in London that has provided self-study, online and face to face language courses since 1901.


Methodology

Linguaphone’s self-study courses follow Linguaphone's in-house methodology of “Listen, Understand, Speak.” Students are encouraged to listen to the language from the beginning, to begin to read as they listen, and only to speak once they have learned to understand the language presented.


History

Linguaphone was established in 1901 by Jacques Roston, a translator and language teacher, born in
Koło Koło () is a town on the Warta River in central Poland with 23,101 inhabitants (2006). It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodship and it is the capital of Koło County. History Koło is one of the oldest towns in Poland. It was granted ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, and they were the first language training company to recognise the potential of combining the traditional written course with the wax cylinder and later with records. At the height of their popularity, Linguaphone was not only a large, international publishing house with many prestigious representative offices (for books, records, tapes and cassettes) but they also ran fashionable language schools in a number of major cities across the world, such as London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. This chain of Linguaphone Institutes could claim to be the second oldest among the international language teaching establishments (the oldest being Berlitz, founded in 1878 and known today as
Berlitz International Berlitz Corporation is a language education and leadership training company which is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. Berlitz Corporation is o ...
) and, as such, Linguaphone had, at one time, the privilege of being an almost automatic first choice among the famous of the day, including royalty. The schools that mainly catered for the business world and the diplomatic service, adapted the Linguaphone method to be used flexibly in combination with face-to-face tuition and the then new language laboratory. The tape recorders in these school language laboratories were specially designed (and patented) by Linguaphone to work on two separate tracks: a master track with the teachers' voices that could only be listened to but not erased, and another track for the students, where (in the gaps provided for the purpose) the students could record and erase their own voices as often as they liked or thought necessary. Teachers were also present to monitor the students’ progress during these laboratory sessions and, when needed, they could give individual guidance through their headphones that were linked to a central monitoring tower in the middle of the laboratory. A further adaptation of this school method was then developed with the invention of the portable language laboratory, the so-called minilab, that could be rented for set periods (with cassettes instead of reel-to-reel tapes). The minilabs became widely used for in-company language tuition as well as for regular language training at government departments and professional organisations, such as the
Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
, the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...
and the
Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and inco ...
. Linguaphone schools, which used to be fashionable, were forced to stop operations due to economic pressures and competition. Its last branch, at 26–32
Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...
, London W.1. UK, closed in September 1980. The branch had its own Executives’ Club licensed to sell alcoholic drinks to members and their guests, even at hours when ordinary British catering establishments were strictly forbidden to do so.


Linguaphone Hong Kong

Linguaphone opened its Hong Kong branch in 1961. It gained much popularity during the 1970s and 1980s as the recording system offered by Linguaphone gave the flexibility to the locals who could not attend language courses at a fixed time and location. Students were also able to listen to the material repeatedly at any preferred time during the course; something that conventional education methods could not offer at the time. In the early 2000s, the Hong Kong branch of Linguaphone went on a steady decline due to the development of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
and popularization of computers, which facilitate an online and interactive learning experience, and other rivals such as Wall Street Institute
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. Linguaphone Hong Kong announced its
liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...
on 17 January 2009.


Linguaphone Group English language training centers

The Linguaphone Group has a global network of English language training centers for adults ("Direct English") and children ("Pingu's English") worldwide across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The Group has centers in Japan, France, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Portugal, India and Vietnam.


See also

*
Language education Language education refers to the processes and practices of teaching a second language, second or foreign language. Its study reflects interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary approaches, usually including some applied linguistics. There are f ...


References


Further reading

* ''Linguaphone: 78 r.p.m. Records : Discography'', by Eddie Shaw. London : E. & E. Shaw, 1999. * ''Spoken, Broken and Bloody English: The Story of George Bernard Shaw, Linguaphone and Eliza Doolittle'', by Jan Marsh. Foreword by Lord Quirk. Linguaphone Institute, 2002. 96pp. ISBN 0747309493.


External links


Linguaphone Group website

Our Heritage
{{Authority control Products introduced in 1901 1901 establishments in the United Kingdom 1980 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Companies based in London Language education publishing companies Language schools Second-language acquisition Language-teaching methodology